The same ancient name was revived in the 1980s as a coastal urban development project on the location of former chemical industries.
Etymology
The Latin name Taparura originates in the Greek TaphroúriaΤαφρούρια which means 'the fortified' place or settlement. It is uncertain whether the Greek name was given after a Greek settlement or by Phoenicians as part of their commercial and military settlements during the 4th century B.C.
The same Greek meaning was translated into Berber in the Byzantine era in Ksar S-Fa-Ekez which gives the current name of the city Sfax.[1]
In 1985 a new development proposal was formulated that would see additional land taken from the Mediterranean and integrated as an urban park, a beach of three kilometers, as well as residential, commercial and tertiary zones. The first works for its revitalization began in 2006 and consisted of environmental remediation and filling.[9][10]
The "Sfax Northern Coast Planning and Development Company" (nicknamed "The Taparura Company")[11] is the central-state-owned company in charge of the project, with little legal binding to the local institutions of Sfax. Since 2008 after the end of the land reclamation works, the company remained idle with no significant progress in terms of planning and development. The central decision-making process is thought to be the main constraint to the implementation of the project according to local activists.[citation needed]
^Leo Africanus, Robert Brown, John Pory, The History and Description of Africa: And of the Notable Things Therein (Cambridge University Press, 2010)p785.
